"Far from fostering competition," the letter, signed by Ed Black, President and CEO of CCIA said, "Microsoft's proposal seems destined to assure that only Microsoft will produce software that can interoperate fully with its products."

The letter, addressed to Harald Theiss, President of Ecma, ends like this:

Mr. Theis, the world is at a crossroads. Much, if not most technological progress today takes place in a milieu of open standards. Rather than approve this proposal as is, we urge you to insist on true openness. You should demand more of any vendor that brings a standard to your committee. If Microsoft’s proposal is to have any meaning at all, competitive vendors and open source developers must have a strong role in its development. Microsoft, likewise, should promise to develop within the confines of the standard it puts forward, and should license any intellectual property within Office 12 so that all developers can be assured that their software licenses will not conflict with Microsoft’s. Once again we urge you to reject the proposal.